- #Secure erase flash drive how to
- #Secure erase flash drive series
- #Secure erase flash drive free
- #Secure erase flash drive mac
Plug in the drive you want to clean up and, if you’re in Yosemite, press Command-Space to launch Searchlight and type in “disk u”…Īs you can see, the top hit is the program you want, “Disk Utility”.
#Secure erase flash drive mac
On a Mac the program of choice is Disk Utility, something supplied by Apple. Physical destruction is generally a one way street with electronics, but the old gadgets might well be useful to someone else and while they’re inexpensive commodities, an 8GB or 16GB drive can still be darn valuable to a school kid! So let’s not destroy them if it’s not necessary. There are a couple of ways you can proceed in this situation, one of which is to physically destroy the thumbdrives with a pair of pliers.
I mean, perhaps your Mom used it to bring a copy of her taxes to the accountant, or you have spreadsheets of invoices payable from your clients back when you weren’t using the Cloud? Eraser will now start wiping the drive – it may take awhile depending on the size of the drive.You’re smart to make sure that the USB Flashdrives you’re finding (or are they “Flash Drives” two words? I never remember!) are empty of data because you just never know what might be on it and identity theft isn’t just in the movies, unfortunately.The task should now look something like this.Optional: you can also choose the erase algorithm using ‘Erasure method’ – but I would only do this if I knew 100% what and why.Then from the list choose the drive you want to erase completely.Under ‘Target Type’ choose ‘Drive/Partition’.Under ‘Task Type’ choose ‘Run Immediately’.Right-click in the middle area and choose ‘New Task’.
#Secure erase flash drive free
METHOD 3: Using Eraser (third-party software)Įraser is a free program that is recommended by the creators of DBAN (a bootable hard drive erasing tool).
#Secure erase flash drive how to
If you’re not sure which is right for you – check out FAT32 vs NTFS – how to pick the right format for your USB drive. NOTE: replace FAT32 with NTFS if you would prefer to use the NTFS. If you want to reformat the drive (assign a partition type and drive letter) you can do this using diskpart by entering the following commands. OPTIONAL STEPS: Format drive using diskpart When finished you will have an empty USB drive ready to reformat.
#Secure erase flash drive series
It can also be used to erase a USB drive by removing all existing partitions and writing a series of o’s. METHOD 2: Using the diskpart command line toolĭiskpart is a built-in command line tool in the Windows operating system that is normally used to manage drives, partitions and mappings (partitions to letters).
Make sure you choose the correct drive and backup any files on the drive you may need to keep. CAUTION: The steps below will completely wipe the data from the USB drive you select.